Foul? What foul?Posted by Paul Gardner on Feb. 23, 7:00 a.m.After his Galaxy had lost a rather tedious Pan-Pacific final to the Koreans of Suwong Samsung, Bruce Arena gave his opinion of the red card given to Galaxy defender Sean Franklin. He was terse: "I didn't see the play, whether he showed studs or not or whatever ... I don't know."

From Marital Bliss to Hell of a MessPosted by Paul Gardner on Feb. 16, 11:46 a.m.I suppose there is such a thing as Beckham-fatigue. I don't mean his fatigue -- though we got a demonstration of that on Sunday, with poor David sitting disconsolately on the sideline in the San Siro, watching his beloved Milan lose to Inter, and looking, well, fatigued. As he should. After all the guy is 33 years old (yes, ...» 0 Comments

From Marital Bliss to Hell of a MessPosted by Paul Gardner on Feb. 16, 7:00 a.m.I suppose there is such a thing as Beckham-fatigue. I don't mean his fatigue -- though we got a demonstration of that yesterday, with poor David sitting disconsolately on the sideline in the San Siro, watching his beloved Milan lose to Inter, and looking, well, fatigued. As he should. After all the guy is 33 years old (yes, yes, ...» 0 Comments

Don Sets Doomsday for DavidPosted by Paul Gardner on Feb. 12, 7:00 a.m.With a great sense of drama and timing, MLS commissioner Don Garber has pronounced Doomsday for David. It will be tomorrow, Friday the 13th. Either Beckham and his clan (his army of advisers, lawyers, consultants, managers, assistants and hangers-on), and AC Milan with all their various experts, come to an agreement with the Los Angeles Galaxy (which means AEG and ...» 0 Comments

Referees and the Reputation ProblemPosted by Paul Gardner on Feb. 9, 7:00 a.m.It's a puzzling thing to me that what I see as a major problem for referees is one that they always tell me is no problem at all. Call it the reputation problem. When a referee knows -- as he must know, he is after all intensely involved in the sport -- of the reputation of certain players as ...» 0 Comments

Soccer's Eternal Olympic MessPosted by Paul Gardner on Feb. 5, 7:00 a.m.Yawn, yawn, YAWN!!. Here we go again, wrestling with soccer's eternal Olympic mess. The details are always the same -- which players should be permitted to play in the tournament? The overall question -- should the tournament be dropped from the Olympics? -- hovers always in the background.

A Global Role for Gulati?Posted by Paul Gardner on Feb. 2, 7:00 a.m.This morning U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati will officially inform FIFA that the United States is eager to stage a future World Cup - two World Cups, in fact, those of 2018 and 2022, though it knows it can only get one of them.